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Economics of the soybean industry
Author(s) -
Fiedler R. E.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
journal of the american oil chemists' society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1558-9331
pISSN - 0003-021X
DOI - 10.1007/bf02673241
Subject(s) - cash crop , soybean oil , agriculture , agribusiness , business , soybean meal , crop , liberian dollar , agricultural science , agricultural economics , agronomy , economics , raw material , geography , food science , environmental science , biology , ecology , archaeology , finance
The soybean, an immigrant from China, has risen from the bottom of the U.S. agricultural crop ladder over the past 40 years to its position today of being number two. Only mighty corn is still ahead of the soybean in cash value to the American farmer. Behind this unprecedented growth of an agricultural crop were two attricutes of the soybean seed: a high content of excellent protein and a moderate content of oil useful for edible and industrial uses. Although soybean oil does not quite measure up in quality to peanut, cotton, corn and some other vegetable oils, research has modified these deficiencies to such an extent that over 50% of all the fats and oils consumed in the U.S. are soy based. The soybean has resulted in the development of a worldwide marketing and processing technology covering the seeds and its two main products. Today, soybean and its products are the most exported agricultural goods reaching, from the U.S. alone, the billion dollar level in recent years. So important has the soybean become to the American scene that it receives the active attention of almost every facet of private and public agribusiness. And the end is not in sight as the meal and oil fractions are finding their way into more and more highly sophisticated applications for human use.